Like other Microsoft Office programs, Outlook 2013 allows you to change much of the formatting for text that you type. One of the format options that you can control is the color of the font that you use. This can be done for individual messages, or you can choose to change the default font color for all of your messages. You may already know how to change default fonts in Word 2013, but the method is somewhat different in Outlook.
Font Color Settings in Outlook 2013
The steps in this article will show you how to change the font color for an individual message in Outlook 2013, then provide additional steps for setting the default font color in Outlook 2013. Note that this will not change the font color for text that you have already typed. If you wish to change the font color of existing text in Outlook 2013, then you need to select the text first, then change the font color. If the font color settings are grayed out, then you will need to change the message format to HTML or Rich Text from the Format Text tab in the message window.
- Open the message in Outlook 2013 for which you wish to change the font color.
- Click the Message tab at the top of the window.

- Click the arrow to the right of the Font Color button, then select the font color that you want to use.

If you would prefer to change the default font color in Outlook 2013, then you can do so by following the steps below.
Changing Default Font Color in Outlook 2013
- Click the File tab at the top-left corner of the window.

- Click the Options button in the column at the left side of the window.

- Click the Mail tab at the left side of the Outlook Options window.

- Click the Stationery and Fonts button at the right side of the window.

- Click the Font button under New mail messages.

- Click the drop-down menu under Font color, then select your default font color. Click the OK button when you are done. You can then repeat steps 5 and 6 for the Replying or forwarding messages and Composing and reading plain text messages options, if desired.

Would you like Outlook to check for new messages more often? Learn how to change the send and receive frequency in Outlook 2013 to make it contact your mail server as often as you would like.
See also
- How to disable work offline in Outlook
- How to strikethrough in Outlook
- How to create a Vcard in Outlook
- How to view the blocked sender list in Outlook
- How to set up Gmail in Outlook

Matthew Burleigh has been writing tech tutorials since 2008. His writing has appeared on dozens of different websites and been read over 50 million times.
After receiving his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Computer Science he spent several years working in IT management for small businesses. However, he now works full time writing content online and creating websites.
His main writing topics include iPhones, Microsoft Office, Google Apps, Android, and Photoshop, but he has also written about many other tech topics as well.